Posted on June 16, 2017
BOSTON --- June is National Homeownership Month and the Massachusetts Housing Partnership’s ONE Mortgage Program is celebrating it by highlighting the efforts of key lenders and nonprofit partners.
Today’s spotlight is on Lawrence Community Works (LCW).
In Lawrence, LCW does a great job educating homebuyers about their options. So far in FY2017, 39 households that went through LCW’s homebuyer education programs ended up buying their first home with a ONE Mortgage loan. The average median income of these buyers was $52,697.
Homebuyer education is a key part of the ONE Mortgage Program. It helps first-time buyers understand what they can afford, and what mortgage program is the best fit for them. LCW has been a leader in offering a wide range of programs that promote knowledgeable and stable homeowners. These programs include financial literacy, mortgage readiness, anti-predatory lending education and consumer protection.
LCW also offers an Individual Development Account program in which savings are matched 3-to-1 until the participant has built $4,800 in savings. These funds can be used for education, to buy a home, or start a business.
Programs like LCW’s IDA program work well with MHP’s ONE Mortgage Program. For example, check out MHP’s 2015 annual report essay on how health care worker Trini Rosa bought her first home with the help of LCW’s IDA program under the direction of Arleen Zorilla.
In the interviews for that essay, homeowner Trini Rosa also told us what the LCW IDA program did for her. "It taught me how to save and budget money," she said. "It taught me what I could afford and all the responsibilities of being a homeowner."
Rosa became so close to her team at LCW that she invited them to her closing and they all took pictures when she went to her new home and stuck her key in the door for the first time as an owner.
Zorilla said that when Rosa came into the program, she wanted to buy but wasn't ready. "We explained things like what it means to create an action play," she said. "What we try to do is combine education with peer support."
Zorilla says orientation is the best part of the IDA program because she gets to know the people she's advising. She starts off by telling them "there are no stupid questions."
She says she has grown to admire the people like Trini Rosa who participate in the IDA program because they are hungry to succeed and take the necessary steps to do so.
"These are people who keep fighting," Zorilla told MHP. "I learn a lot from them."
These days, the determination Zorilla looks for in her IDA program is needed because buying a home in Massachusetts and the Greater Boston area isn’t easy. Statewide, inventory is down 34 percent, prices are up 6 percent and sales are down 3.5 percent.
In this market, ONE Mortgage is more important than ever and we thank Lawrence Community Works for its continuing dedication to helping low- and moderate-income first-time buyers make the right choice so they stay in their homes for the long run and build wealth that they can pass onto future generations.
ABOUT ONE MORTGAGE: Prosperous families. Stable and secure neighborhoods. Sound, private-sector loans that get repaid. That’s what ONE Mortgage delivers.
Since 1990, ONE Mortgage and its predecessor – the SoftSecond Loan Program – have helped more than 20,000 low- and moderate-income families purchase their first and home and has delivered $3.5 billion in below-market, private mortgage financing.
ONE Mortgage is a 30-year, fixed-rate loan with a minimum 3 percent down payment (5 percent for three-family properties). ONE homebuyers save more each month because they do not have to pay for costly private mortgage insurance.
State interest subsidies are used to reduce monthly payments in the early years of homeownership and then public funds are repaid by borrowers when they successfully sell their home or refinance out of the program.
For more information about ONE Mortgage, go to www.mhp.net/onemortgage.